I am involved in a new company that is selling a new product of Richard Branson called Virgin Galactic. Virgin Galactic is selling suborbital spaceflights for the price of $200.000.
“Our principal aim behind this is not to make money. The principal aim is to reinvest any money we make into space exploration,” Branson said. “We expect to double, triple, quadruple the number of astronauts in the next few years that have currently experienced space,” he said.
To date, Branson said, about a 100 pioneers have been willing to pay $200,000 to be the first people to go into space via Virgin Galactic. “These are the kinds of people who are going to enable us to bring the cost of space travel down,” he stated.
Space Tourism is not the primary target of the Company. It wants to be the first commercial company involved in Space Exploration.
Space Exploration is a major theme of Science Fiction. When I was young I read all the books in this Genre I could find. Science Fiction has stimulated Science extensively. Many Scientist got their inspiration out of explorations of the Future. When the Theme was set it was only a matter of time when somebody would realize the Inspiration of the Author.
The step from Idea to Realization is mostly not the issue of a Science Fiction novel. In most cases we have realized all the technology and our just “doing it”. Most of the time the final realization takes much longer than the writer could imagine. Jules Verne put a Man on the Moon about a hundred years ago.
The major theme of Space Exploration in Science Fiction is War. We meet Extraterrestrials and they or we don’t like each other. We are part of a Federation (mostly the Good Ones) and in the end we beat the Bad Ones. Interesting enough many of the Stories related to UFO’s look a lot like the Science Fiction Stories. The only difference is that THEY are visiting US.
In the Renaissance the people in the West started to explore Earth like we want to explore Space. After The Renaissance the Age of Exploitation started, The Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution followed by the Age of Information made Space Exploration finally possible.
History repeats itself so I can imagine what will happen next. Both stages are part of a bigger cycle, the Cycle of Culture. It takes about 1250 years to turn around.
At this moment we are in a situation comparable to the year 758. The only thing that is different from that time is that we have moved to another Level, Earth.
What happened around 750?
At 750 we are in the Middle of the Middle Ages called the Dark Ages. It was the time when the Great Empire of Rome was collapsing because of a huge movement of hungry people. The world was struggling with a sudden change of the Climate. Everywhere States were fighting to expand and defend their territories. Around this time a new Spiritual Leader, Mohammed, created a new Religion. It was the start of the expansion of the Arab World and the Arab Empires..
Conditions in Western Europe slowly began to improve after 700 as Europe experienced an agricultural boom caused by a substantial increase in solar radiation. About 600 years later the Renaissance started.
The Great Empire of the West is currently collapsing because of a huge movement of hungry people. Just like the Roman Empire we are really not aware of the collapse. In the last days Romans spend all their time playing very expensive games and were enjoying life to the extremes. They forced all the other states to pay enormous amounts of taxes to keep the Entertainment Business running. In the End their stable infrastructure collapsed.
I hope you see the relationship.
Replace the Arab Expansion in the Middle Ages by the coming Chinese Expansion in you will know Who’s gone Win.
Millions of people are waiting for the Coming of the new Messiah, the new Spiritual Leader of the World. According to the Cycle He (or She!) will come soon.
In the West we are playing Games. Leslie Benzies, the producer of Grand Theft Auto IV recently revealed in an interview that the amount of money spent on the development of the game was right around $100 million. The budget of the movie Pirates of the Caribbean was $300 million. The development costs of all the movies and games exceeds the budget of the World Food Organization with ease.
Why do we need to move into Space?
The first reason could be to escape Earth. We need another place to live because life on earth is not the way it was. If we do this and Science Fiction is Right at the long term we will move into a comparable situation, Competition on the Level of the Galaxy. We have to learn who are our friends and who are our enemies.
The second reason could be “Spin-Off”. Space Exploration has boosted Science and Technology.
The last reason could be to see Earth as it is. A Beautiful Blue Slowly Turning Globe without any Borders. From Space Earth looks like a Paradise. I imagine the Extraterrestials are seeing this also! This could be the reason they are here!
The Cycle of Civilization is a slow cycle but there are cycles with a much longer periodicity. Many “Old Civilizations” found the Cycle of the Precession of the Equinox and “calculated” the Center of this Cycle, The Mother Goddess situated in the Pleiades.
The coming Years the Very Long Cycle and the Cycle of Civilization are coming into a Conjuction. The Effect of this Conjunction is unknown. Human Civilization has not gathered enough data to make an understandable prediction. The only thing we know is that we are living in a Very Special Time of History.
One of the people that analyzed the very Long Cycle (Terrence McKenna) predicted Time/Space-Travel as a major Novelty that would soon appear. Just like the Mayas and many other Civilizations he knew there is a very cheap alternative, DMT (a psychedelic drug).
The Old Civilizations predicted a return of the (Virgin!) Mother Goddess of the Pleiades (Ises, Mary Magdalene, The Black Madonna, Alcyone). Perhaps She is the New Spiritual Leader many religions are waiting for. I hope the Male Religions don’t mind She is a Female!
Perhaps Richard Branson should start a new Company soon, Virgin TimeTravel. She Will Love It.
The printing press, invented in 1450, made it possible to distribute all the new knowledge all over the known world.
In the Arts the 
The need to convert others to the Christian faith was huge. Many expeditions, Crusades, were send out to unknown territory to find convertible humans.
Production in the Renaissance was carried out by the Guilds, a Cooperation of Craftsman. They were almost in total control of every craft in the big cities.